Heroes Are Eternal
by Stefan422
Summary: During an intermission of the contest, The Eternal Champion gets a glimpse of the world of Overwatch, and pauses the contest to send the Champions to aide Overwatch's agents in their mission for global peace. X-over with Eternal Champions. Post Recall, and during the events of EC: Challenge from The Dark Side.
1. Watching Over - Part One

_Disclaimer: I own nothing in this crossover. The Eternal Champions and Overwatch franchises are owned by Blizzard and SEGA respectively._

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 **NOTE:** As the description says, this story will be crossing over Overwatch and Eternal Champions. It will be posted in the main Overwatch category since EC doesn't have a category of its own on FF as of yet.

Additionally, regarding the story itself, the story will be predominantly set in the Overwatch universe, and hopefully that'll help to dispel the continuity confusion for the non-EC fans who may be reading this. That's likely to be a lot on this page, so those who don't want to read the second section of this chapter can just stop at the end of the first part of the chapter and just wait for the next chapter to come out. But for those interested in reading the entirety of Chapter one, by all means, my readers, read!

Lastly, before I start storytelling, I want to mention that I took a small liberty of sorts with an aspect of Jetta (one of the characters this fanfic will be starring). Her bio states that she changed her given birthname to the one she now goes by (Jetta Maxx). Said birthname was never specified, so I came up with the name Diana Grigorev for her because all other EC characters with monikers have a proper birthname that they would also respond to.

With that said, sit back, relax, and as usual with my works, everyone will be kept in-character. Enjoy!

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 **Heroes Are Eternal**

 **Watching Over - Part One**

Lena Oxton's breathing was steady and sharp as she jogged down the single corridor. With every gentle thud her Croc-like shoes produced on the metal floor, her heart beat a little faster, a little stronger. Her arms moved slightly to match her sharp strides of her semi-run, keeping up a flawless jogging form, which she was used to. She _had_ been keeping herself in shape even when her old task force was inactive, should she need to still spring back into action as a solo hero.

Lena smiled as she neared the destination with every next step. Jack, or Soldier 76, as he insisted on strictly going by, had called every Overwatch agent to the briefing room for an urgent briefing. A mission.

That's right. Overwatch was back in business.

It all started when Winston, the genius gorilla, realized that the world still needed Overwatch, and in spite of the PETRAS Act, rallied them all back together to fight the good fight. It had gone better than expected in more ways than one, as they'd managed to not only fully recruit the team, but Winston had managed to pull some strings and even recruit non-former Overwatch members. Lena knew for sure that a rocket-blasting paragon of justice and a (fully reformed) dragon-wielding archer would make killer additions to the team. The world needed more heroes, after all.

It had also gone rather well in terms of restoring their base of operations. Winston managed to track down an old decommissioned Overwatch base in Norway's mountain ranges. The newly restored Overwatch set up operations there rather than having multiple bases around the world. Better to have less targets for their enemies to attack, Winston had reasoned with her and the other members. A ginormous HQ dead in the middle of the mountains would look outright suspicious to the public at best, so Winston had taken the liberty of constructing a cloaking field around the perimeter of the outside of the base, hiding it from sight entirely, to the human eye, that was. The tech used to make it would keep it off most radars, which would help greatly in keeping themselves hidden. The effect would even stretch to those inside, and only they would be capable of seeing their surroundings and themselves until the field was removed. Winston took pride in his work, and he had to admit that the cloak was extremely clever, not to mention 'bloody badass' as Lena had put it.

By this point she was a few yards away from the meeting room. Unable to contain her excitement any longer at the thought of another mission since Overwatch's reform, she Blinked down the rest of the way and into one of the grey-coloured room's leather office chairs surrounding the mahogany table. She saw that she'd Blinked into the chair right next to the one that contained Hana Song, who gave her the peace sign in acknowledgement, unable to greet her verbally due to the growing pink bubble between her lips. Lena raised her gloved finger to it as if she were about to pop it, only to have her hand swiftly swatted away by the Korean.

"I keep forgetting how good those reflexes of yours are, love." Lena chuckled, prompting a wink from Hana, who cheekily pointed at her with the 'gun sign'.

A Raptora-clad Fareeha Amari cracked the slightest smirk and aimed a look at Winston.

"She'll always be like this, won't she?"

Winston let out a deep, resounding chuckle. "I think so, Fareeha, but I wouldn't have Miss Lena Oxton any other way."

" _Aww_ , c'mere ya big lug!" Lena grinned, Blinking out of her seat, she practically attached herself to Winston, wrapping her arms around his neck in a hug as best she could. Winston laughed, adjusting his glasses, which had come askew from the impact of her body hitting his. Moments later, she Blinked back into her seat, giggling at the sight.

Torbjörn scoffed at the display of affection between the two friends as his somewhat usual frown deepened. "I'm looking to get this over with already! What's taking Morrison so fuckin' long?!"

In the corner next to a potted plant, Bastion beeped a series of long-ish beeps, the noises indicating that it was content to wait as long as it had to.

" _Piece o' shit. . ._ " Torbjörn hissed under his breath, referring to the Omnic, the remark going mostly unheard. As more agents filled the room, Reinhardt laughed boisterously at the dwarf's first remark. He sat in a larger office chair to accommodate the bulk of his Crusader armour, which he now wore.

"I too look forward to the mission! May Talon come in great numbers so that we may crush them all!" The knight-like soldier boomed, giving Torbjörn's shoulder a hearty pat, much to the Swede's chagrin. The entry door slid open and revealed the only two figures missing from the team.

"Glad you're in a mood to destroy, Reinhardt. We'll be doing just that to accomplish our objective." Came the reply of Ana Amari, second in command. Beside her was Jack, and they both walked to the front of the room. Naturally, they were the first ones there, so they used the opportunity to step out of the room momentarily to discuss a matter, and were satisfied that the team had fully assembled in their short absence.

"And what is objective this time?" Zarya boldly rumbled, the obvious smirk in her tone seemed to suggest that her strength alone would carry the entire team to a victory.

Jack pushed a button on a small device mounted on the wall before answering. His action caused a blue holographic map of Dorado to project in midair. "Talon's expecting two weapons shipments in Dorado, and we're putting a stop to them.

"What kinda weapons're we talkin' here?" McCree asked smoothly, seeming to almost recline back in his seat.

"It could be nukes for all we know, which is why you all can't afford to drop the ball on this one." Jack retorted gruffly. That certainly got everyone ready for action, and the air grew intense. Talon was a dangerous enough organization on its own, and none of them wanted to think about what they could do with such devastating weaponry. Granted, it was no guarantee that that was what they were to stop, but anything was a possibility. Jack pointed to a spot on the map, his harsh tone bringing their attention to it.

"We're gonna divide and conquer. Me, Bastion, Hana, Genji, McCree, Torbjörn, and Zarya are gonna attack from the front. We'll need healing, so Mercy's coming with us."

"And I'll lead the rest of you. We'll go in from the side to stop the second shipment," Ana spoke next, pointing to a side spot on the map. The delivery of her words weren't nearly rough as Jack's, but had all of the authority. "As for healing, I'll make sure myself that you all aren't in too much pain out there."

"Any questions?" Jack checked, the following silence answered his question. Through the red of his visor, he saw that Torbjörn and Zarya were fixing him with hateful glares, but he didn't care. He'd found that in previous missions since Overwatch's revival that when put together, Bastion, Zarya and Torbjörn were highly effective. Too bad the latter two couldn't get that through their goddamn heads. With everyone good to go, Jack switched off the machine, and hefted his pulse rifle from where it leant up against the wall.

"Alright people, get your gear and move your asses."

As everyone began to do as instructed and file out of the room, Lúcio addressed Lena with a smile and a nudge.

"Yo, Lena, rematch?"

"Oh you're on, love!" Lena chirped, lips pulled back to grin knowing he was talking about a race to stop their squads weapons shipment. This was going to be awesome, not even so much as the little competition with Lúcio, but the mission itself. For she could once again relive the glorious past. She was no longer Lena Oxton. She was Tracer.

With everyone aboard and Tracer at the controls, the massive jet roared down the runway and took off into the deep blue night. Once they were in midair, Winston produced a pocket-sized device and pressed a button, causing the entire gargantuan Overwatch tower to vanish from sight. They were rolling, now. Next stop: Dorado, Mexico.

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Jetta Maxx and R.A.X Coswell were locked in vigorous hand-to-hand combat, both feeling the pressure that they had placed on one another throughout as they circled around one another. It was a mere sparring match, and a 'no powers' one at that, but that didn't mean that hearts weren't hammering and sweat wasn't falling. R.A.X needed to make sure that Jetta was ready for her upcoming fight with Midknight, her third opponent in the Eternal Champion's contest. Midknight's vampiric strength and speed was comparable to her own Phase speed, and could have ended the match in a few seconds if she was unprepared. R.A.X trained not only for Jetta's sake, but for his own as well. His opponent was Riptide, and while her profession may not have suggested it, the corsair was a renowned and unyielding fighter. R.A.X wasn't leaving anything to chance.

Jetta barely had time to guard as R.A.X brought his foot up in attempt to land a kick to the side of her head, but correctly predicted his next move and blocked a midsection kick. Jetta used the opportunity to rush in and leap without accounting for her superhuman agility. She threw out a midair roundhouse kick aimed at his head, hoping to catch him in recovery, but he was faster to regain his bearings than she thought, and deflected the attack, sending her to the ground in a sort of fall. Under different physical circumstances, this would have caused her to hit the ground in a heap, but being a highly skilled acrobat gave her the ability to twist her lithe body into a stable midair position, letting her land on her bare feet. R.A.X was coming at her fast with a right cross, but she managed to barely dodge the blow and throw her leg out in a sweep kick. The attack hit its mark, and R.A.X, unable to dodge it in time, was sent to the ground. He didn't leap to his feet, which meant he wanted to take a break, they had been at this for a while now. She got the message loud and clear, and came out of her stance in favor of extending a hand for him to take. He took it.

"Damn, that was intense," R.A.X conceded after a chuckle, his speech sounding cybernetic and layered. "Good match."

"I can easily say the same." Jetta said, smiling a smile of genuine kindness. Her own voice much was more befitting of a human, and tinged with Russian.

They stood on grassy land which sat atop a pond of impossible length in a waterfall-like location. A sub-dimension of the Eternity Complex, right outside the Battle Room where the Champions usually trained. Jetta and R.A.X thought they would try something different this time and have their session outdoors, a nice change of pace. In the Battle Room itself, they couldn't experience the gentle breeze, fresh air, and the sounds of the rushing water falling into the pond as they sparred.

As they caught their collective breaths from the intense session, Jetta's eyes travelled past her friend and landed on a tall rock with a flat wall and presumably flat top, at least by the way it looked from her perspective. R.A.X curiously followed her gaze and looked back at her.

"What's up?"

"Would you like to go up to that rock to sit? I imagine the view is lovely."

The cyborg shrugged. "Can't hurt, I guess."

He activated his Air Jets and took to the sky, reaching the top of the rock in several seconds. Jetta craned her neck upwards to look at him as he did so before she herself jumped at the rock's flat wall-like surface. She stuck to it, and began climbing the face in a spider-like fashion, feeling the slight heat of the rock on her bare hands and feet. She effortlessly swung her body up to the top, where R.A.X stood, waiting for her.

They both sat down on the edge, not fearing for their lives should either one of them slip and fall from the edge. R.A.X had his Air Jets, and Jetta could easily nail a catlike landing from the height at which they were. Jetta placed her palms on the stone surface behind her, crossing one leg over the other. She gazed out to the distance, where the bright, full moon sat high in the sky.

"Crazy, isn't it?" The Cyber-fighter asked his friend without turning to look at her. She did likewise, retaining her position as well.

"Yes. It borders on overwhelming, but I am ultimately glad we are able to at least spend time with each other."

Jetta and R.A.X had both considered themselves close with one another since the halfway point of the first contest. Directly after he and the other Champions had been spectating the Russian acrobat's fight with Trident. The gladiator, eager to earn his chance for a second shot at those cheating Romans, fought hard against Jetta, unrelentingly coming at her with vicious swipes of his hand-mounted namesake, and using his Bio-Stun and Repulsor shields to counter her blinding Phase speed. Miraculously, Jetta found a way past his defenses, and landed a flawless Corkscrew Uppercut, and from there, managed to turn the tides of the fight. It was a timed bout, and neither of them had been knocked out or submitted during the duration, so the winner was ultimately left up to Eternal, who chose Jetta, believing her performance to be the be the better of the two. R.A.X approached Jetta afterwards, and praised her on her maneuvers during the fight. Jetta, being the kind soul she was, accepted the compliment, and accoladed his own from what she'd seen throughout the contest, and built conversation from there. They'd stuck by each other since, and continued to support one another in their ultimate goal, despite what was actually on the line with this contest.

R.A.X wrapped his arm affectionately around Jetta, who smiled and did the same. They both stared ahead at a Buddha-like statue, illuminated in the moonlight. Jetta was the first to bring it up.

"That statue, I have never seen one like it before. Do you think—"

The Russian was cut off clean by the glaring sensation of her vision suddenly whitening. She spun to face R.A.X, who'd turned to face her as well. It was happening to him, too.

"Eternal," He said laconically and knowingly. By now his vision was halfway-whited out. "He wants us."

"Yes. . ." Jetta agreed in a low voice, the last of her vision clouding over. The last thing in her sight having been R.A.X staring at her.

The next thing the two realized, the two friends were standing on the grey tile of the Eternity Complex, surrounded by the other Champions, some of which were muttering amongst themselves in confusion as to why they were abruptly brought here. The Eternal Champion himself was hovering a moderate distance up, arms folded over his garbed chest.

"My Champions," He spoke in an aged-sounding, yet powerful voice that silently requested undivided attention. "I have summoned you to inform you that I have ended the contest due to there being another matter to attend to. I have only recently witnessed the condition of another world, one that is plagued with conflict, hatred, and crime."

The Champions were all silent at this, both taken aback in surprise at the contest being ended, and curious as to what the full situation about this 'other world' was. Eternal had heavily implied that the two had something to do with each other, and the Champions were getting a damn good idea as to what it was. But they didn't interrupt with questions regarding the contest yet, and instead kept their ears open and collective gazes locked on him. R.A.X's human eye narrowed in a sort of knowing curiosity, while Jetta experienced a rapidly increasing sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"There is a task force known as _Overwatch_. They are dedicated to cleansing their world of the evil that dogs it. I am sending you all to assist them."

The confirmed news garnered mixed reactions from the Champions. The corners of Blade's mouth had turned down, his eyebrows pointed inwards, and his eyes narrowed behind the opaque lenses of his shades. Even with eyes covered, it was clear that the hulking bounty hunter was disgruntled at having to work alongside others. By contrast, Shadow was rather satisfied with this new information. She hungered for adventure, and had long decided to use her skills for something better than serving the Black Orchid's needs.

Jetta sighed defeatedly as her features had taken on a deflated look. What they were being told to do was the exact thing that she figured being resurrected would avoid: the spread of bloodshed and violence. It was different with the contest, as they were competing, fighting only to see who would get to earn a second chance at the life that prematurely met an end. And even then, the fights were only to knockout. With what Eternal wanted them to do meant them fighting evil. And Jetta knew that evil had no inhibitions regarding lives of the ones that antagonized them. Evil even preferred to kill. The worst part for Jetta was that she was fairly confident that this Overwatch organization did not use pacifism—her preferred method of resolving conflict. It didn't _sound_ like a peaceful organization, and unfortunately, that meant there would be more fighting.

R.A.X, knowing his friend, laid his organic hand on her shoulder in a comforting gesture. Though Jetta was grateful of the effort, it did nothing to improve her mood at the moment, her face having retained its forlorn expression as she stared on ahead.

"So I'm guessing these guys've got it worse off than we do?" Blast intoned cynically, crossing his arms over his broad chest.

"Quite possibly, Thomas," Eternal answered, addressing the Green Beret by his actual name. "And as the keeper of the balance of good, it is my duty to ensure that peace is ensured wherever it can. If possible, enlist in their forces. You all will be able to coordinate substantially better that way."

What Eternal was saying made sense. After all, had they been directly affiliated with Overwatch, planning attack strategies would go about 10x smoother, and as everyone knew: the plan was one of the deciding factors to a task's success. All of the Champions—even Slash, went into contest bouts with some sort of way to get from Point A to Point B, even if they didn't always go as originally anticipated.

But there was still the burning question hanging in the air. Larcen, unable to bear the suspense of it any longer, voiced the concerns of everyone in the room.

"What about the contest, though? We just done with it or somethin'? Not sayin' I don't care about these Overwatch fellas, but wasn't the point to this whole thing to see who gets to fix up _our_ world?"

Retaining his straight posture as he levitated in midair, Eternal spoke clearly, addressing them all.

"There will be no need for a contest. As you all know, the presence of the Dark Champion still lurks within even these walls. Recently, he has made an attempt on my life, and will continue to do so. I can return fire to at least prevent his influence from reaching you all, but to ensure the safety of all of you, I will be sending you to the universe that Overwatch occupies. By the time you all are finished your duties there, I will have hopefully have withered his influence down to the point where attacking him directly will be safe for you. You all may then assist me in the final battle.

When the Dark Champion is defeated, I theorize that his power will be brought into my own essence. I know that such a thing would result in the power being taken into my being, and with it, I will be able to send you all back to your times, so that you may not only change humanity for the better, but create a flawless world."

Eternal allowed a small smile cross his face as he viewed the responses of the Champions at his words, letting them truly sink in. He was powerful without question, but Eternal was by no means a mind reader. He did not need to be to guess the reactions of his warriors. Most were pleased at the mere thought at a perfect world, though some others were skeptical, and some even cynical.

Jetta's face broke out into an elated grin, her eyes practically seeing stars at the entity's words. She clasped her hands together buoyantly, feeling her mood suddenly do a u-turn. A _perfect world_? Such a thing meant eternal peace—war would literally become a thing of the past, and the thought of that made her heart sing. She still wasn't keen on the fact that violence would have to before they could ultimately achieve such an outcome, but coincided that it was well worth it. She shot R.A.X a happy glance, which he more or less returned. The Cyber-fighter had to admit that a perfect society sounded pretty good. . .one where corrupt managers didn't kill their own clients just to win fucking stupid bets.

He visibly bristled at the memory. It was what brought him here in the first place, and it had left him something of a cynic. Of course, Jetta had managed to allay that bitter way of thinking for the most part, but he'd still forever hate people like his prick of a manager. Jetta's eyes met his for a brief second, and flashed with a sympathetic look that went acknowledged by the Cyber-fighter, who gave a small but genuine nod in thanks, for the gesture.

"Who are Overwatch's greatest enemies, Eternal?" Shadow inquired. Her tone was calm and even, but her anticipatory words all but practically sharpening the sheathed katana that sat diagonally across her back. She was all too ready to begin her new job, even if it was temporary. After all, their enemies were soon to be hers, and she wanted everything she could get on them. It probably came from being a past assassin.

"An organization known as Talon. I feel that it is not my position to provide details of the struggles of other worlds, so I will leave Overwatch to do so. But know this for now—they are undeniably evil, and must be brought to an end for the good of humanity."

Eternal then angled his head slightly downward, turning his gaze particularly on Slash. Even while retaining his high air of professionalism, he allowed a minuscule smile grace his cyan colored features.

"Was that comprehensible enough, Slash?"

In response to the entity's half-quip, the caveman gave a feral and unintelligent sounding grunt and beat himself in the side of the head with his own club rather roughly.

"Overwatch good! Talon bad!" He roared confirmingly.

"Good," The Eternal Champion's smile faded, a slow nod coming afterwards as he now looked upon all 16 warriors. Dipping his head slightly, he effortlessly tapped into his power, starting the dimensional transferring process, slowly whitening their visions in the process.

"You have your instructions. Now you must go, find your new allies, and help restore a new world! Farewell and good luck to you, my Champions. I will be watching over you. . ."

R.A.X half-squinted at the feeling of being transported, the feeling of total weightlessness. His vision was half-washed out by this point, and he glanced over to Jetta, knowing she, along with the other Champions, had to have been feeling similarly. Next to him, he could hear a somewhat stony-looking Jetta muttering something in Russian with such softness, that it was unintelligible. Saw her bright scarlet lips moving. Probably lamenting the nature of the situation. He didn't blame her after all, she was a pacifist, for God's sake. He knew she'd stick to strictly knocking out her enemies, like they did in the contest, but there was a chance she'd have to kill someone in this new universe, and that would tear her apart, even if it was one of these Talon bastards that was being killed. Unfortunately for them, R.A.X had no such issues with dealing a good death blow. Though in truth, he was concerned with how easily they would be 'finding' these Overwatch guys after they'd been transported to God-knows-where within the alternative universe they occupied.

The Cyber-fighter's body was now overtaken with a foreign feeling that made it feel like it no longer existed, his vision now a blinding white as he suddenly felt himself being taken out of the universe he knew and into the world of these new heroes. Into the world of Overwatch.

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Author's Note: And that was the end of the first part, my readers! Like I said at the beginning of this chapter, for those of you who just skipped to the end after the 'Overwatch' part of the chapter, I understand, and the next one will once again start out with Overwatch action.

For those who are wondering who is a part of Overwatch as of this story, the answer would be any non-villainous character barring Zenyatta. He will be included in the story, however, and he'll have several appearances throughout, not just a single cameo. I look forward to his interactions with some of the EC characters, as well as other cross-series-interactions (Jetta and Widowmaker, Blast and Junkrat, as well as Tracer and Riptide to name a few).

I also look forward to further developing the friendship between Jetta and R.A.X. They're both two of my favorite EC characters, and the EC manuals (vaguely) state that some of the fighters make friends with one another during the contest, so I figured 'Why not make them inseparable best friends?' I also plan on having Tracer befriend them as well, making it a group of three.

Oh, and regarding the Overwatch heroes' names, yes, I will address them by their codenames when on missions. When not on missions, they'll be referred to as their regular names (ex: Tracer will be Lena, Pharah will be Fareeha, etc.).

So, readers, I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter, and I'll try to get the next up ASAP, and it'll be a giant action scene following the events foreshadowed above, as well as the Champions meeting Overwatch. How will that go? You'll have to wait and see. . .

Reviews are welcome but please, no flames!

 _-Stefan422_


	2. Watching Over - Part Two

**Heroes Are Eternal**

 **Watching Over - Part Two**

Tracer hopped out of the jet and sprinted forth across the concrete, surrounded by her teammates, with Ana trailing closely behind the group. The senior Amari opted to hang back, should anyone need healing, despite technically still leading the squad. 76 and his squad headed off in the other direction, where the greater amount of Talon grunts stood preemptively waiting for them. Keeping in routine to the briefing, Tracer and her group went in from the side after being dropped off a short distance first, away from the swarming Talon soldiers.

"Stick together everyone," Ana instructed, one eye switching from viewing the path ahead where her teammates ran slightly ahead, and the rooftops, on the lookout for any enemy snipers. "We need to cut down Talon's men. We'll break off individually later when we've somewhat thinned them out."

There were nods of confirmation all around, and being in back, Ana saw them all. They'd begun sprinting up a short incline in the path, and heard a male scream, accompanied by terrified Spanish cursing and the patter of fleeing footsteps. It caused all eight agents (especially Reinhardt) to grip their weapons tighter, as they knew what was on the other side.

"Talon!" Tracer blurted, Blinking over the rest of the incline and into the air. She saw a small swarm of Talon soldiers armed with assault rifles. Some concentrated on the grounded Overwatch agents, but two aimed upward to fire at her. Before they could get any shots off, however, Tracer split her aim, and riddled them with pulse rounds. She grinned a little at the efficiency of the plasma ammunition, never ceasing to burn straight through the Kevlar of their outfits or their armored helmets.

As the two dead soldiers bled haplessly onto the street, Tracer Blinked in and out of the grunts' point-blank ranges, laughing merrily. They fired, and missed. She finally Blinked into a mid-ranged position and fired, searing holes straight through their bodies. They dropped like puppets with cut strings.

" _I want you all headed for that building up ahead,_ " Ana's elderly voice sounded over the comm link. " _We're going to check out that forsaken shack._ "

As she Blinked and fired, Tracer had to once again appreciate the tech they had. Their comms had volume sensors. At low background noise, the comms would have lower volumes, and at near- eardrum-poppingly louder background volumes, the volume increased. This was so the wearer didn't experience headaches from the (sometimes) combined true sounds of their companions talking versus their digitized voices that came through the comm link. Courtesy of Winston, of course.

" _No doubt Talon will be hiding there, too._ " Pharah growled from several feet up, scowling underneath her bird-themed helmet. Her voice ended up coming over the channel, too, due to the deafening sound of her rockets blasting her enemies, and scattering their body parts. Hanzo readied an arrow and fired it with such force that it pierced straight _through_ the last Talon soldier's helmet, getting lodged in halfway through. Bits of shrapnel flew from the impact hole.

"Let's get moving, then! Last one there's a rotten egg!" Tracer giggled, charging her Chronal Accelerator for a Blink to the shack Ana mentioned. She was halted by a large hand suddenly seizing her shoulder right before it could happen.

"Tracer, no!" Winston interjected. "Ana said it was important we stayed close together on this one."

Tracer responded with a small pout, but stayed put. Ana motioned for them all to proceed, and they were off.

"That's right, This city is infested with Talon men. We don't need anybody getting injured or killed on this mission."

"Alright, alright, I gotcha." Tracer said in a mock bored tone, waving in Ana's general direction. Yet the grin that seized her features was enough to ensure both of her fellow agents that the remark was meant to be more cheeky than genuinely disgruntled.

Hanzo drew an arrow and set it preemptively as they advanced forward. He addressed the Brit in a serious tone. "Will you always carry that sense of recklessness about you?"

"Probably," Tracer responded with a wide smile, even though Hanzo couldn't see it from where she was in the formation.

"Hey, nothing wrong with having a little fun once in awhile, Hanzo!" Lúcio cut in with a smile in his companion's defense, who in response, Blinked beside him and slapped him a hearty high-five.

They drew nearer to the old rundown shack. Out of ammo, Tracer twirled her guns, reloading them, when a Talon goon jumped out from behind a thick palm tree on a nearby lawn that expertly hid him from view. The soldier aimed at Tracer before emptying his clip, all but missing entirely, due to the Brit's Blinking. She appeared behind him and shot him dead, rounds burning right through his helmet.

"Christ, loves, they really _are_ everywhere!" Tracer remarked, joining the others in searching for anymore that could've to be hiding. There had been another one dead and bleeding out on the ground—he'd tried getting the drop on Mei only to receive an icicle clean through the head.

"Are you okay, Tracer?" Ana asked, receiving an enthusiastic thumbs up from said girl.

"Mei?" Ana.

"O-oh, yes, I'm fine," The climatologist replied with a reassuring smile, adjusting her glasses, which had come crooked in the slight commotion. A nod from Ana.

"Good," Ana replied, giving a short-lasting smile. "Then let's go. The shack is just up there."

They advanced forward as one, and eventually reached their target location. They stormed into the doorless wooden hut, to be instantly be greeted by Talon soldiers. They opened fire immediately, forcing the team to scatter.

"Take cover!" Ana roared as loud as her elderly voice would allow. She dove for a large, sturdy looking metal barrel in the corner and rolled behind it, but not before firing off a deadly round. The soldier took the shot in the knee, now partially disabled because of it.

Hanzo did similarly, jumping while shooting a Scatter Arrow. As he evasively ran to avoid the gunfire, he watched the arrow's blue light bounce about the walls, and soldiers in the room. The attack _did_ miss some, however, and broke before it could strike all of the soldiers. The Japanese marksman continued to shoot traditional arrows at the men, aided by the others, namely Ana, who continued to fire rounds from her cover.

Tracer and was focusing her efforts on keeping them off of Pharah's back, who couldn't fire her weapon due to being in the rickety shack, something the Egyptian was somewhat bitter about. Though she knew it was for the safety of her team, and had been channeling the subtle rage into extra strength for physical attacks.

She hellishly slammed the end of her rocket launcher into a soldier's helmet, deeply cracking the apparatus, and undoubtedly killing the man, doing the same to the next that approached from the side. Another one raised his rifle to shoot, prompting Pharah to knock his weapon from his grasp, then smash her rocket launcher into his face, once again cracking the surface of the helmet and downing him. From behind, one managed to loosen her grip on her weapon with the recoil from a shot to her armoured shoulder, prompting her to wisely drop the weapon and deliver a savage left hook to the man's temple, dazing him. Pharah used the window of opportunity to slip behind him and snap his neck, unceremoniously dropping the corpse afterwards.

Winston determinedly frowned while viciously swatting and punching the enemy soldiers with his ginormous arm, all the while squeezing the trigger of his Tesla Cannon, frying a soldier alive, and moving to do same to the one nearby once the first had died. The resulting tortured cries of said grunts were drowned out by the sound of hails of bullets, which Winston had no choice but to take due to his lack of mobility (without the use of his jump pack). The advance of the firing and steadily advancing soldiers was brought to a screeching halt by three by three spherical sound blasts from Lúcio's Sonic Amplifier. The affected Talon soldiers' uniforms were ripped wide open, the remains of which left smoking from the deadly vibrations.

With the area finally cleared out, Ana finally came out from her cover, and those who needed it were given a proper opportunity to reload.

"Thanks for the assist, Lúcio." Winston genuinely remarked with a sigh, rolling his shoulders.

"Hey, don't mention it, my dude!" Lúcio replied with his usual joviality. It quickly shifted to concern as he looked at the gorilla more closely. "You alright? That was a _lotta_ lead they were pumping out."

"Arms and back are a little sore, but I'll live," Winston chuckled, before going concerned. "The Jump Pack might've gotten damaged, though."

"I may not be that little old dwarf, but your equipment looks in fine shape to me, Winston." Reinhardt chuckled, surveying the damage to Winston's apparatus and armour. There had been tiny dings where the bullets had hit, but the exterior of the white armour or the jets had been actually been punctured.

"You're one to call someone old, Reinhardt," Ana briefly teased, smiling. "But yes, Winston, your Pack looks in good enough condition. Just dents. Nothing's punctured."

"I'll take your word on that, both of you." The gorilla conceded in mellow tones after a short silence. He knew that Ana and Reinhardt weren't, as Reinhardt said, 'that old dwarf', but he knew that they had eyesight, and if what they saw was true—that no bullets had passed through, then his Jump Pack should most certainly be in working order. He'd designed the armour to be especially dense, to protect the equipment itself.

The elder Amari then turned to her kin. "Do you need healing?"

"No, ' _Um_. It was only one shot to my armour. I'll be fine." Pharah replied with a shake of her head. While it may have sounded curt to some, there was a _touch_ of thanks hidden in there for her mother's concern. Ana responded with a single nod, moving onto other matters.

"We've still got to stop that weapon shipment. Talon's still running rampant, but we can't spend anymore time on solely disintegrating their forces. From here, we split up and look for that shipment. _Be careful_."

"Awesome! See ya, Ana! C'mon, Winston!" Tracer chirped, blinking out of the open window and into the street, wildly gesticulating for him to come. Winston directed an apologetic small smile Ana's way, sighing.

"I should probably go after her." The gorilla deduced, knowing Tracer's bold tendencies.

Reinhardt heartily laughed and marched over to Winston, causing the already rickety floorboards to loudly groan in protest under the weight of his heavily, _heavily_ armoured boots. "She can be a handful indeed. Do not worry, _mein freund_ , I will join you two! Besides, I find that nothing helps bring three warriors together like a good fight!"

Winston chuckled, though his lacked the overwhelmingly boisterous fervor that the German's contained. "Makes sense to me. Besides, this way we'll be able to put up a stronger front against Talon between the three of us."

"Hanzo, Pharah, you're both with me." Ana declared. Hanzo grunted an affirmative while mounting a Scatter Arrow atop his Storm Bow in preparation for an inevitable Talon swarm. Pharah tightened her metal grip on her own weapon, but shifted slightly. A small part of her glad that the bill of her helmet prevented her from letting her and Ana lock eyes.

"Guess that's just us left, Mei. Hope you're ready to jam!" Lúcio smiled, causing Mei's cheeks to flush red, and an amused giggle to bubble up her throat. The action caused her large frames to once again slide down, albeit to slighter degree this time, and she pushed them back up, muttering a small apology.

Ana Amari spoke once more, elderly, yet authoritative voice fully resounding throughout the rather small shack as she spoke, addressing all of the heroes in the area.

"You all have your instructions. We will all search, and take out any Talon operatives we come across. Time is wasting."

* * *

The Eternal Champions found themselves dead in front of a line of multicolored rowhomes. They stood on the heated sidewalk, quickly regaining their bearings from the interdimensional transportation process as they all took in their new surroundings.

"Where have we been sent?" Raven Gindar asked, clearly confused along with several others. It was understandable, given that roughly half of the warriors present were far out of their time, and therefore did not recognize Dorado's capital before it had overgone its changes with time. In some cases, a certain few of the group had not been to such an area at any point in their lives.

"I'd know this place anywhere," Blast gruffly cut in though not necessarily out of ill will towards her. He took a final survey of the area before speaking. It looked "We're in fuckin' Mexico."

"If Eternal sent us here of all places, Overwatch must be on an assignment." Chin Wo deduced, referring to their exact location at which they stood. Blast, misinterpreting the remark as a racial comment, aimed a heated glare at the acupuncturist, who merely rolled his eyes.

"I was simply referring to the fact that we were transported in front of a row of otherwise ordinary houses rather than Overwatch's base of operations. I hold no malice toward the Hispanic race."

Though Chin seemed genuine, Blast did not break his hard stare for even a moment, dropping his voice to a growl.

"Keep it that way, Monkey Boy."

Before it could escalate any further, Ramses spoke up, his charismatic voice bringing them all to attention.

"In any case, we need to find this Overwatch organization while they are still here. Splitting up is the best option. We would not want to be still be wandering about here when a busy task force such as Overwatch is already off to their next destination." The legendary pharaoh said, claiming the role of the unofficial leader.

"How do want it done?" R.A.X said, straightforwardly.

"There lies the problem. I would suggest splitting us up in two separate groups, but that would render half you without a leader. And that is hardly something that a true leader would consider in a situation such as this."

"I appreciate the. . .concern, Ramses," Xavier started, truthfully unsure if it was genuine concern for his fellow fighters or plain arrogance that Ramses was conveying. "But we're competent enough to hold our own."

"I second that. I may not have myself any powers like y'all, but I can damn well handle myself against them Talon weasels, should they come askin' for a fight while we're here." Dawson rasped in agreement. He had a twelve-gauge shotgun hidden away in his longcoat, but he almost never used it, opting to use his fists and sleeve-concealed knives if it came down to it. Some called him lucky for winning so many fights with such a mindset, but it luck was hardly a factor. The only luck he needed was skill, as he liked to say.

"Hey, now, don't be puttin' me in the mix, there, cowboy," Larcen wittily rejoined, grinning. "I'm just a regular old fella here, too. But I got enough blades on me to match whatever a superhuman's got."

". . .If you are all certain. . ." Ramses said slowly, "than we can separate down the center. Those of us on my half will go north, and the rest of you, south."

Jetta looked sour at hearing the news. She'd so happened to be among the half that the more excessively violent Champions occupied. Knowing that Talon operatives could very well be roaming about, she tried to mentally prepare herself for seeing the carnage they'd most likely end up bringing upon the soldiers by attempting to imagine horrific manners of mutilations of the human body by bladed weapons, blunt weapons, and muskets.

A few seconds into that, and Jetta's stomach was churning sickly, a physical reaction that made her instantly regret visiting such a grisly place in her mind. It wasn't even the gory mental images that induced such a reaction (though it was immensely unsettling in itself), but the fact that there were humans behind such acts in her little daydream. Jetta's brows knitted together in dread, this would be hard.

Ramses' half of the Champions were off by the time she refocused, leaving Jetta with R.A.X, Shadow, Blast, Trident, Chin Wo, Riptide, Thanatos, and Larcen. They took off down the (for now) quiet street in a close group, down turns in the road and up short inclines, until they arrived at a wide square-shaped plaza. Four other pathways connected to the area, but it was ambiguous to the group as to which one should be taken, as they all looked perfectly identical. Riptide frowned after surveying the area, and swiped the tip of her finger across her tongue, which she then held up in attempt to feel the winds.

"You do know that we're not on one of your _pirate voyages_ , don't you?" Thanatos mocked, a substantial mix of annoyance and impertinence decorating his tone.

"The winds of dry land may not be as strong, but, I am able to navigate, as long as they are present, _skeleton_ ," The Italian pirate retorted with a leer aimed at Thanatos, before turning to face her left, where she pointed a slim finger. "We go in this direction."

The other Champions shared brief looks with one another before deciding to quickly follow Riptide's sprinting form down the left way. It was a narrower pathway, but still wide enough to be manageable. It also helped that there were luminous lights hanging about the walls—Jetta and R.A.X decided that any light, decent or not, would be welcome in the night.

After they had slipped out of the alleyway, they'd come to a wider street, lined with stone sidewalk. It was a more spacious area compared to the little passage they'd just emerged from, but the group was now uncertain as to where their next location was, as the street they'd just found themselves on had led to a dead end after a short and shallow decline.

"Nice one, Riptide. You led us straight to a dead end," Blast sourly jested. "And they say you seafolk are good with directions. _Hmph_."

Before Riptide could retort with something scathing, and justify her decision with the detail of a hidden passageway somewhere in the area, Jetta piped up.

"Look!"

The Russian acrobat had been pointing to a page of a newspaper, ripped at the halfway point. There was still enough of the top half left to see that their was a photograph framed by Spanish text. Though one word could be clearly understood throughout the article: "Overwatch."

The photograph itself featured Tracer firing her guns, a roaring Winston, Mercy in mid-flight, and Reinhardt brandishing his massive hammer. Among them were several other heroes, and while they didn't stand out as much, were a man with what looked like two swords, and three men with guns—two clad in armour, and one not.

"Guess these are the guys we need to look for," R.A.X commented, he and the others having joined Jetta at the telephone pole the article was mounted on. "They seem pretty into tech, judging by their equipment."

"Is that woman giving the image of. . .an _angel_?" Jetta remarked after looking at the photo more closely. After she came to the conclusion that Mercy did indeed have an angelic motif about her, her expression then changed to one of confusion. This was certainly an odd twist—an angel-like clad member of a force that clearly wasn't against violence? It felt ironic to Jetta. Especially given that fact that she likely used that odd-looking staff of hers to do more harm than good.

"Curious, but my eye caught the gorilla in that white plating first. I suppose I'm not the only oddity here." Trident said with both interest and something akin to satisfaction.

"Gloss over the big-ass robot why don't you guys," R.A.X joked with a little chuckle. He crossed he crossed his arms and eyed the armoured German more seriously, who he completely mistook for a robot. "Jesus, thing's a tank, glad it'll be on our side."

"You don't see many ladies packing heat in the 20's. Only dames you'd see wearing iron by my way is that crazy lady working at the Chicago Theatre." Larcen said, reminiscing rather unpleasantly, after seeing Tracer's picture.

"In any case, we should get looking for th—" Shadow began, before suddenly detecting a good number of moving black figures out of her peripheral vision, causing her and the others to whip their heads 30 degrees. The similarly-dressed figures appeared to have come out of an alleyway, and were armed with assault rifles as they began to suspiciously take aim at the group. Their glowing red eyepieces on their gas mask-like helmets gave a bold indication as to who they served under.

" _Talon_!" The kunoichi yelled furiously, drawing her katana and rushing into the battle, her comrades following suit. Shadow sidestepped a hail of gunfire and swung her katana, chopping off an arm of one of the Talon soldiers, and a leg on another, heavily disorienting them both. As fresh blood instantly began spraying from the wounds, Shadow took the opportunity to finish them with two four-bladed shuriken to the throat each. Completely unmoved—even satisfied by her actions, she quickly sought out another target, only to find herself surrounded by five armed soldiers. They opened fire simultaneously, but less than a _literal_ second later, they were all beheaded in a blur of black, forcing the headless bodies to fall limply to the pavement, said blur having been a darkly smirking Shadow Yamato.

Jetta, grudgingly, fought alongside her fellow Champions. She didn't want to, and wished that she could've tried to reason with the Talon grunts to get them to abandon their hideous lifestyle. But that did not seem likely due to the fact that there were several of them—each with their own thought processes, and mindsets some more vile and incorrigible than others among the small group of them. So she made a choice to fight, it disgusted her, but knew it was what would most help the team in this situation.

She curled herself into a tight ball for a Ricochet, and sped off with wild speed, rebounding off facades to disrupt the enemy's aim before actually launching herself at three approaching Talon soldiers, who were utterly unable to keep her in their sights. They held down their triggers, but couldn't track Jetta's stunningly fast movements. She collided with them forcefully in succession, hard enough to render them unconscious.

Upon an effortlessly clean landing, Jetta tried excruciatingly hard to keep from dry heaving at the sight of the immense amount of bloodshed that was going at the hands of the aforementioned ' _more violent Champions_.' She activated her Phase speed, and rushed at super speed to seek out another target.

An electrified cable was sent R.A.X's way at high speed, which the Cyber-fighter managed to narrowly sidestep, while of course, feeling the immense heat from said cable. Closing the distance between him and the offending soldier, R.A.X loosed a superpowered right hook. He shattered the helmet, and killed the grunt who'd been wearing it, giving him a hideous looking bruise that continued to quickly redden and ooze blood. Two more soldiers came running, guns ready and thin scopes trained right on him, forcing R.A.X into a quick thought process. There were two of them, and he had no quick way of releasing dual projectiles. He could Overload and chance firing an energy bolt at them, but he could only fire them one at a time, and the blast didn't come out instantaneously.

Instead, R.A.X started into a sprint—and immediately hit the ground in a forward roll, effectively evading the anticipated shots, which turned out to be cables rather than gunfire this time. Nevertheless, R.A.X still capitalized on the opportunity, and knocked them both to the ground with a jet propelled sweep before finishing them off with a punch to the face each.

Soon afterwards, the group of fighters had defeated the wave of Talon soldiers, but not without suffering some degree of damage themselves, be it a knock from a rifle butt, or a graze from an actual bullet. The combatants all took a brief moment to catch their breaths before R.A.X addressed them all collectively.

"Everybody okay?" He asked haggardly between short pants, receiving affirmative murmurs and nods.

"They managed to shock me with one of those strange, ropes. . .but I'll live." Trident commented. Despite being genetically engineered to be near-indestructible, the gladiator was without the ability to ignore pain, especially that of the high voltage wires that Talon rifles were equipped with.

" _Cables_ ," Blast grunted, correcting him. "If no-one's hurt, then let's keep it moving."

"The path still ends here," Chin Wo pointed out, frowning more at the situation than the Hispanic soldier himself. His frown deepened in concentration and thought as he spotted a moderately high rooftop on a nearby building. In a display of agility that rivaled even Jetta's, Chin leapt to it from where he stood, landing neatly on the lit semi-rooftop. With a monkey-like attitude and skill, the acupuncturist leapt up to the rooftops preceding the first, until he'd reached the top. He'd started hearing sounds of gunfire and shrieking during his ascent, so he tried to be silent as he peeked over the edge. To his extreme displeasure, he saw Talon soldiers standing among bloody, unmoving bodies riddled with bullet holes. To make matters worse, the excuses for human beings lowered their weapons and began to seemingly talk! To discuss strategy!

 _Talon would murder innocents solely to clear up space_. . . Chin disgustedly thought, now frowning out of utter hatred. He leapt down back towards the group, who'd been watching him raptly. They noticed the terrible frown plastered onto his features. They'd never seen Chin get so angry at something other than the mention of cousins before.

" _Those_ bastards?" Shadow surmised, face going dark.

Chin Wo nodded curtly, largely knowing who she was referring to.

" _Nine innocent lives, ripped away_."

A sombre feeling washed over the group (barring Thanatos and Riptide, who were largely unaffected), mixed with a substantial amount of anger—Jetta in particular having felt it the most, having hated to see lives lost to violence.

But even so, it had arguably affected R.A.X the hardest of all, and that was due to something that could've been a factor. The Cyber-fighter obviously knew he where he was, even before Blast pointed it out upon their arrival. He also knew that the majority of people living here were highly likely to be of Hispanic origin. Eternal had been extremely vague in describing Talon's motives, but R.A.X could only hope that they weren't some hate group that ran on bigotry and discrimination. He'd quite honestly seen enough of that in his universe—against him in some instances, due to being a cyborg. Unfortunately, he knew that even though he'd much rather go without it, he knew people with such mindsets would always taint the earth with their presence. That didn't mean he wasn't going to make those Talon fucks pay with their lives. Whether the killing had to do with discrimination or not, Talon were a group of killers, they'd seen it, and Eternal had said so before sending them off. They had to be destroyed.

R.A.X silently leered at the situation, his human eye narrowing as his hands—one flesh and one metal, clenched to tight fists.

"We need to get over there and make those goons pay," Larcen said, serious. He never did believe in killing, especially not the killing of innocents.

"I can fly you over, Thanatos. You too, Dawson," R.A.X nodded to the god of death as Blast fired a cable from one of his golden brass knuckles, hitting the high building face and preparing to zip to the top.

Jetta and Chin simply leapt up using their superhuman agility, meeting Blast at the top in a crouched position to avoid being seen, and doing likewise. In a brilliant cyclone of water, Riptide had teleported from the ground to a similar position at the roof, Shadow doing likewise via Ninjutsu techniques, skipping the usual smoke bomb due to it not being a combat situation—yet.

Due to convenience, Larcen ran around the side of the building where it was flat-faced before making use of his climbing skills, easily scaling the architecture in seconds, nearly arriving before Trident, who'd solidified on the roof from a puddle after doing the opposite on the ground—his own way of 'teleporting'. R.A.X had dropped off Dawson and Thanatos in turn.

They all remained in their lowered positions, knowing it was safer to eliminate the risk of being seen altogether. Thanatos, feeling bold, suddenly popped up to cursorily peer over the edge to see if they still had the element of surprise. Naturally, it earned him a bunch of pointed glares from his allies, when he was yanked back down by the torso of his black cloak by Blast.

"What? It was required of me to check if we were clear to go," He said, skeletal features contorting into a grin that almost seemed bloodthirsty. He spun his scythe in anticipation. "And we are. Let's go."

After witnessing his almost jovial mannerism even after several innocents had been killed—a fact that should have affected them all, the others, barring Riptide, of course, sent withering glares his way.

"Does it occur to you that people have _**died**_?" Trident growled, especially incensed.

To their incredulity, Thanatos shrugged nonchalantly, before resting his scythe across one shoulder. "Of course, I know more about death than anyone. I am the god of death, after all. It's honestly not that big of a deal."

"He is not wrong," Riptide agreed icily, yet taking on a certain insightfulness. She stilled herself and sank lower behind the building peak as she thought she saw the Talon soldiers remain for one last check of the area, others following suit. "Death is a natural cycle, is it not? You all would be delusional to say that billions have not perished in some manner."

"Coupl'a _sociopaths_ ," Blast, stated with his usual bluntness, causing Riptide to give him a black stare and Thanatos to grin in a wide, yet somehow innocent-looking grin, as though he'd said nothing wrong. "C'mon, let's just go and bust some asses. They're trying to leave, but it ain't happening on my watch."

* * *

Author's Note: So it ends here, readers!

This chapter was shorter than intended, and that's because I'm going to be splitting it up, merging it with the next chapter: "Meetings." And as the title implies, I promise that the next chapter is when the Overwatch and EC characters start meeting each other. Starting with that Jetta vs. Widowmaker fight I promised. Doomfist will also be apart of the story as a villain, who will be working under Talon's employ.

And speaking of villains, I've got plans to bring in some bad guys from the EC universe to make the new Overwatch's job a little tougher, which will effectively add themselves to their rogues gallery, making this a little more interesting (just fucking imagine Soldier 76 fighting an evil voodoo priest). That won't happen until a bit of a ways into the story, though. Overwatch will be focusing on Talon, the two Junkers, and Vishkar for right now.

Sorry that this chapter had to end on such a sad note! Spoiler Alert: That group of Talon operatives will _**get theirs**_ come next chapter! _#downwithtalon_

Until next, time!

 _\- Stefan422_


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